1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a paper path switching mechanism which changes the paper path of a page, depending on the direction of travel of the page, and is more particularly related to a document inverting mechanism which changes the path of a page in order to reverse the front-to-back orientation of the page.
2. Discussion of the Background
In business office machines such as copiers, printers, and facsimile machines, it may be desirable to invert a page such that the top of the page is facing downwardly and the bottom of the page is facing upwardly. For example, when an automatic document feeder is used and original pages are first copied from the bottom of a paper stack, it may be desired to have the top and bottom of the pages inverted as compared to when pages of a book are copied from the front to the back of the book in order to have the pages ejected in the proper order and orientation. A known mechanism for inverting pages is disclosed in Japanese Published Patent Application 3-107454 (1991), a portion of which is illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1C. A mechanism similar to that illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1C is illustrated in Japanese Published Patent Application 3-118964 (1991). In FIG. 1A, a pair of rollers 201 and 202 feeds a page having the top-side T and under-side U past a diverter 205. In FIG. 1A, the diverter 205 directs the paper horizontally, past the diverter 210, and between the rollers 240. In contrast, when it is desired to invert the page, the diverter 205 pivots downwardly and directs the page around the roller 201, as illustrated in FIG. 1B. The page having the under-side facing upward and the top-side facing downwardly is then moved in a downward direction past the diverter 210, along path 230 and between the rollers 240. A view showing the length of roller 201 and the diverter 205 is illustrated in FIG. 1C.
Problems exist with the currently available page inverting mechanisms and document diverters in that paper jams sometimes occur due to the page diverters and document reversing mechanisms.